You have 4 ingredients. You have to make a beautiful, impressive dessert. You have less than 1 hour. Go!

That might be how things go down on some fancy cooking show. But here? It was more like this:

What the &^%$ am I going to do with another 4 lbs of figs? [digs through freezer] Oooh, I wonder what’s encased inside this rectangular iceberg in the very back corner? Is that an emergency pie crust leftover from last Thanksgiving?! YEEEEESSSSS.

And the fact that I didn’t even have an egg to make an eggwash for the crust mattered not.

As we’ve talked about before, “galette” might as well be French for “just throw some #%$^ inside a pie crust and be prepared to be treated like a total superhero for your magical creation.”

Although I will say, if you spend the extra 3.7 minutes daintily laying fig slices in concentric circles rather than throwing them inside a pie crust and hastily spreading them out, being treated like a total superhero is completely warranted. But the magical creation at the end will taste exactly the same: magical.

There are two things of which I am certain:
1) God intended a ripe, bruise-it-just-by-looking-at-it peach to be consumed in the heat of July, straight from the tree and
2) Plums get the shaft when it comes to pretty internet recipes.

But if God didn’t want something like this to happen, surely he wouldn’t have let the Pilgrims invent buttery, flaky pie crust to share with the natives on the First Thanksgiving*

*That is possibly not historically accurate.

We’ve talked before about how “galette” was just a fancy French word for throw &^%$ together (as well as another way to consume wine). And if this recipe doesn’t exemplify throwing *&^% together, man, I just don’t know what does.

I took three of the ripest peaches I could get my hands on and three of the juiciest plums I could swipe before Landry ate them all. I sliced those up, piled them into a rolled-out pie crust that I found at the bottom of the freezer (while I was making room for another bag of pitted cherries, naturally), and then hit it with an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar.

What went into the oven was an almost-pretty pile of improvisation. What came out of the oven was a beautiful, bubbly concoction wrapped in a flaky, buttery pastry crust. And at about the same temperature if I had grabbed a peach off the tree in the backyard.

I used as little sugar as possible. I could tell you that this was to let the natural sweetness of the fruit shine. But that’s kind of a load. What I was really trying to do was save the carby carbs for the ice cream I planned to serve on top. The creamy vanilla ice cream cut the slightly tart galette perfectly for dessert on the patio.

Not too shabby for a barely-a-recipe recipe.

Peach and Plum Galette

A quick and easy fruit tart highlighting two of summer's best fruits: peaches and plums.

These individual galettes are not your average dessert. The rustic pie/tart/pastry-thingies are filled with red wine-soaked cherries, glazed with a red wine reduction, and then topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It tastes like someone (me) spiked a cherry pie with wine (because I did).

And they couldn’t be easier. You take a dough circle (full disclosure: more like rounded squares and octagons), fill it with drunken fruit, and then fold the edges in.

Imperfection is the key here – because I’m almost positive that “galette” is French for “just throw that crap together because no one GAF what it looks like and pour me more wine.” (Gosh, the French are insanely concise. And bossy.)

And sure, you need 2 hours for the recipe. But 90 minutes of that is actually you just drinking wine while watching Top Gear reruns.

I used my all-time-favorite forever-and-ever-amen pie crust recipe for the perfectly flaky base. You could just grab one from the freezer section… but you might as well just make your own. Because what else are you going to do while the cherries are soaking? (Besides drink wine.)

Drunken Cherry Galettes

A buttery, flaky galette filled with red wine-soaked cherries.

Ingredients

For the pie crust:

11 Tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks

2 cups flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4-6 Tbsp ice cold water

For the filling:

~1 1/4 lb cherries, (pitted to yield 1 lb)

1 cup red wine (I used a merlot - anything you like to drink will work)

1/4 cup sugar

Juice and Zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp cornstarch

1 egg whisked with 1 tbsp water

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Cut in the butter (by hand or machine) until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is mostly the size of peas.

Add 4 Tbsp water and mix, adding the last of the water 1 tablespoon at a time only if needed to make the mixture hold together when pinched between your fingers.

Turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat it together into a disc.

Wrap tightly and refrigerate for an hour.

Pit the cherries and place in a shallow dish (I used a pie plate).

Pour over the wine, lemon juice and zest, and sugar, stirring to mix well.

Let sit one hour at room temp (longer is fine).

Set a strainer over a sauce pan and pour the cherries into the strainer, scraping any undissolved sugar from the bowl, and drain well.

Remove 1/4 cup of wine and set aside.

Simmer the wine mixture in the pot until thickened and reduced to about 1/4 cup.

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Sprinkle cornstarch over the cherries and add the reserved 1/4 cup wine, stirring until well mixed.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, roll out on a floured surface into a circle, and mound 1/4 of the cherries in the center of each circle of dough.

Fold the edges towards the center and drizzle 1 Tbsp of the liquid left in the bowl over each dessert.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown.

Brush wine reduction over the fruit in each tart, top with a scoop of ice cream, and drizzle with more wine reduction.

Remember that pecan pumpkin butter? Today I’m going to how you to use half of it and, at the same time, take care of breakfast (or dessert) for the week.

These non-cinnamon “cinnamon” rolls use pecan pumpkin butter, brown sugar, and roasted pecans for the filling. After baking, the warm rolls are topped with a cream cheese icing spiked with bourbon, vanilla, and molasses. They’re sweet, they’re rich, and they’re intense.

Just like the Apple Cinnamon Rolls we made a couple of weeks ago, the recipe is simply our favorite “plain” cinnamon roll recipe dressed up with a different filling. And a little booze. You assemble them the evening before, let them rest in the fridge overnight, let them rise the next morning, and then bake.

If booze for breakfast isn’t your thing, replace it with milk. If you’re thinking “I’m going to have the bourbon out pouring a glass anyway…” then you and I were likely separated at birth.

Just kidding. I don’t drink bourbon. For breakfast.

Pecan Pumpkin Butter Rolls with Bourbon Cream Cheese Icing

Dress up a plain cinnamon roll for fall with pecan pumpkin butter and an icing spiked with bourbon and molasses.

Instructions

Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, beat the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, butter, vanilla, buttermilk and half the flour together until well combined. Add yeast, salt, and the next 1 1/4 cup flour (leaving about 3/4 cup remaining) and knead on low for 5 minutes.

Add additional flour by the spoonful if necessary - you want the dough soft and moist but not overly sticky. Knead another 5 minutes until the dough clears the sides of the bowl (but might still stick to the bottom a bit).

Transfer dough to a lightly greased, large bowl and let double, 2-2.5 hours.

Just before the dough is finished, preheat the oven to 375.

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and roast 5-7 minutes, until brown and fragrant.

Set aside to cool.

Spray or butter a 9-inch pan. Turn out the dough onto your lightly floured work surface. Stretch and roll the dough into a ~12x18 rectangle with the long edge nearest to you.

Spread the pecan pumpkin butter over the dough, leaving the top 1-inch bare. Spinkle the pecans and brown sugar over top.

Starting with the edge of the dough closest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder and pinch the the seam to seal. Gently press, squeeze, and stretch the roll to get an even thickness.

Cut the roll into 1 1/2-inch slices and place in the baking dish (you'll get 12 rolls). Cover tightly with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Place the rolls in the oven with the heat off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3 full of boiling water and place it on the rack below the rolls. Close the oven and let the rolls rise for ~30 minutes.

Remove the water pan and rolls from the oven and preheat the oven to 350.

Bake rolls on the middle rack for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

While the rolls are cooling, beat the cream cheese, bourbon, molasses, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until smooth. Drizzle over the rolls and serve.

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge, tightly covered. Rewarm in the microwave for best results.

It’s September! The 9th month of the year is the gateway to sweatshirts, chili, football, and all things pumpkin. But before there’s pumpkin and Halloween candy, there are apples.

This month, Rachel is throwing an Apple a Day party – a group of fabulous bloggers sharing their favorite apple recipes. And my contribution? Breakfast. But not just any breakfast. It’s cinnamon roll meets apple pie meets Jack Daniels.

The cinnamon rolls are dressed up for fall with vanilla bean, brown sugar, apples, and whiskey and then topped with a cream cheese glaze scented with just a little bit more whiskey. It will take you longer to read the recipe title aloud than it will to inhale a cinnamon roll and lick your fingers clean. I speak from experience.

Head on over to Baked by Rachel to check-out the fabulous apple recipe collection.

Instructions

Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, beat the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, butter, vanilla, buttermilk and half the flour together until well combined. Add yeast, salt, and the next 1 1/4 cup flour (leaving about 3/4 cup remaining) and knead on low for 5 minutes.

Add additional flour by the spoonful if necessary - you want the dough soft and moist but not overly sticky. Knead another 5 minutes until the dough clears the sides of the bowl (but might still stick to the bottom a bit).

Transfer dough to a lightly greased, large bowl and let double, 2-2.5 hours.

Just before the dough is finished, make the filling. Melt the butter in a large saute pan and add the diced apple. Crumble 1/2 cup of brown sugar over top and stir in the cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and Jack Daniels. Simmer for 10 minutes, until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and set aside to cool.

Spray or butter a 9-inch pan. Turn out the dough onto your lightly floured work surface. Stretch and roll the dough into a ~12x18 rectangle with the long edge nearest to you.

Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar over the dough, leaving the top 1-inch bare. Spread the cooled apple mixture over the dough.

Starting with the edge of the dough closest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder and pinch the the seam to seal. Gently press, squeeze, and stretch the roll to get an even thickness.

Cut the roll into 1 1/2-inch slices and place in the baking dish (you'll get 12 rolls). Cover tightly with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Place the rolls in the oven with the heat off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3 full of boiling water and place it on the rack below the rolls. Close the oven and let the rolls rise for ~30 minutes.

Remove the water pan and rolls from the oven and preheat the oven to 350.

Bake rolls on the middle rack for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

While the rolls are cooling, beat the cream cheese, milk, Jack Daniels (to taste, 1-2 tsp at a time), and powdered sugar together until smooth. Drizzle over the rolls and serve.

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge, tightly covered. Rewarm in the microwave for best results.

This week’s Project Pastry Queen challenge was selected by Emily of She Makes and Bakes. And it’s one of my very, very favorite recipes in the entire book: Kolache.

Kolache are czech breakfast pastries that are very popular in Texas. While traditionally topped with a cream cheese or fruit mixture, it was the savory versions that sold out day after day at my parents’ bakery. Sausage, ham and cheese, and jalapeno sausage & cheese were the most popular varieties.

There’s almost no better breakfast during the summer than a peach kolache but I chose to make a few changes to the recipe and make ham & cheese kolache this week:
– I let the dough rest in the fridge overnight. The recipe suggests at least 4 hours but the long overnight rise makes the dough more flavorful.
– I used 2 oz of dough per kolache (a little smaller than a golf ball), flattened the dough into a circle, and topped with a pinch of shredded cheddar and a spoonful of cubed ham.

– 1 lb of ham (I got two 1/2-inch slices from the deli counter) and 4 ounces of shredded cheddar will get you about 20 kolache from a half batch of kolache dough.
– Adding fresh jalapeno slices to the filling is optional. Recommended, but optional.

Near the top of my list of reasons why I could never move away from Texas, right under “free grandparent babysitting,” is kolache.

That list also includes other things like the Texans, quick access to beautiful grapefruit from the Rio valley, homemade tortillas from any number of nearby Mexican markets, Hill Country barbecue, a nearly year-long vegetable garden season, real Tex-Mex, and picking strawberries in February.

And not having to constantly answer “Oh, wow! Are you from Dallas?” when I pronounce a word with a long i. Like riiiice. And liiiight.

A Kolache, in its more traditional form, is a soft, sweet Czech breakfast pastry topped with fruit or cream cheese. During the summer, there is almost nothing better than having a tray full of peach kolache taking up the entire top shelf of your fridge!

“Sausage kolache” have become a Texas breakfast staple and were super popular at my parents’ bakery. It’s the same soft, sweet dough wrapped around a link of sausage. Bakeries typically use breakfast link sausages in their “small” kolaches but I prefer to start my day with a “big” kolache – stuffed with a smoked sausage link (the kind you’d normally find on a grill during the summer), fresh jalapeno slices, and cheddar. The sweet dough and the smokey meat make for a delicious breakfast.

And not surprisingly, you don’t find yourself thinking about lunch until it’s almost time for dinner.

This recipe for kolache dough is the closest I’ve ever found to both what my parents used and what the little shops further west sell. Use your favorite sausage – we used a Smoked Jalapeno-Cheddar Venison sausage in our latest batch. We usually freeze half a batch in a large ziptop bag and keep the other half in the fridge. The frozen kolache can thaw overnight on the top shelf of the fridge and be ready to reheated in the microwave the next day.

Smoked sausage, cut into 3-4 inch pieces and halved lengthwise if very thick

Instructions

Sprinkle the yeast over warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let proof for 5 minutes, until foamy/creamy.

Turn the mixer to low and add the milk, melted butter, 2 eggs, sugar, and salt until mixed thoroughly.

Add the flour in two batches (start with the low amount) and mix only until just combined. The dough will be tacky but should be firm enough to crawl up the dough hook. Add additional flour as necessary.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1-2 hours, until dough has doubled.

Punch down and refrigerate covered overnight or for at least 4 hours.

Divide dough into ~2.5 inch balls (I weighed mine at 2.5 oz each) and set on a lined baking sheet.

Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Flatten each dough ball and top with a couple slices of jalapeno and pinch of grated cheddar (if using) and place the sausage on top.

Wrap the dough around the fillings, pinching the edges together and placing seam-side down on the baking sheet.

Cover and let rest for 20 minutes, while preheating oven to 375.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until browned.

Let the kolache cool for 20 minutes and serve.

Leftovers will keep tightly wrapped in the fridge for 3-4 days and can also be frozen.

I feel like it wasn’t all that long ago, my girlfriends and I were sitting around at lunch, deciding how we were going to squeeze 8 girls into a hotel room barely big enough for 1… but cost like it should hold 39. Discussions of grabbing odds on who’d be the first Hand Grenade victim, who’d be the first back to the hotel (I wanted the bed!), and who wouldn’t stumble back ’til day break because she couldn’t remember the name of the hotel (ahem, yeah… I’m so sure that’s why she was out all night).

Only it really was that long ago. And I’ll be honest. I’m totally okay with that. Most of the time

So I took my friend Erica’s King Cake recipe and made just a few changes to end up with King Cake Cupcakes. The dough in this recipe is on the lighter side and that made it ideal to form into individual king cakes. You get a sweet, light pastry dough that rises and domes beautifully as a cupcake. (They’re “cupcakes” in name only, they definitely have a more pastry/cinnamon roll-like texture than cake-like).

Filled with a cinnamon-cream cheese mixture and topped with a light glaze, they’re a far safer and much cheaper way to celebrate Mardi Gras.

Add only enough extra flour to get the dough to clean the sides of the bowl but not come completely off the bottom - it should be only slightly sticky when you touch it.

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled (45 minutes-1 hour in my 100-degree oven). While dough is rising, make the filling.

Place filling ingredients into the mixer bowl (minus the melted butter) and mix on medium-high until completely smooth, 1-2 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 and line 2 cupcake pans with 18 liners.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times.

Stretch to a rectangle about 18x12 and brush with 2 Tbsp melted butter, leaving the top 1-inch dry.

Spread cream cheese filling over the dough evenly, leaving the top 1-inch dry.

Starting with the long side of the dough closest to you, roll jelly-roll style, pinching the last inch of the dough onto the roll and placing seam-down on the counter.

Lightly pat/pull so that the roll is even diameter down its length.

Trim the scraggly ends and then slice into rounds that are ~3/4-1 inch thick. Take care that they don't get any thicker than that, the rolls should sit level/just below level of the cupcake pan. Any taller and they'll grow too tall in the oven and fall over.

Transfer the rounds to the cupcake pans and let rest while the oven preheats to 375.

Bake ~25 minutes, until lightly browned and nicely domed.

Remove from the oven and let cool ~10 minutes in the pan.

Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, whisk powdered sugar, vanilla, and gradually add the water until you get a smooth and thick but scoopable glaze.

Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the glaze (or spoon over top) and then sprinkle with decorating sugar. Like cinnamon rolls, they're best in the first 2 days. If you're bringing them to a party, ice/sugar them the night before. When stored in an airtight container for much longer than that, the sugar and glaze will begin to melt from the pastry moisture. Delicious still, just not as cute.

I’ve done us all a favor and deleted the previous 4 paragraphs. I went all tangenty about the first company I worked for and might have mentioned how they knew exactly how many times you went to the bathroom each day because you had to use a keypad to get from the cube farm to the bathroom areas. Believe it or not, that actually started as a post about apple dumplings. And so it shall be.

The cafeteria at that company served the best apple dumplings. And if you weren’t standing in line before 11:30, you were out of luck. They were softball-sized apples with the empty core stuffed with sugar, cinnamon, butter, and walnuts. Those magical ingredients were wrapped up in a flakey pie crust and just like that, you’ve got dessert for two days. Or two people.

Apple dumplings are super, super easy to make at home with a handful of ingredients. And since I’m a huge fan of crust, I think the heavy crust:apple ratio is perfect. I actually made apple dumplings for dessert the first night I cooked dinner for The Foodie Groom. Yep, I made homemade apple dumplings for a man that didn’t like apples. Wah wah waaah.

Luckily, his view of apples have changed quite a bit. I put apple dumplings on our Thanksgiving menu after seeing a similar recipe in the latest Williams-Sonoma mailer. You know, to make sure we have a baked apple dessert at both dinners

I typically use whole, medium-sized apples and fill the empty core with a butter-white sugar-cinnamon-chopped pecans/walnut mixture. But we decided that we liked what the brown sugar does for the filling and the half-apple makes the serving size a little more portion-friendly. The apple dumplings come together really quickly, especially if you take the short-cut that I did and pick up a premade pie crust. (Although making the dough from scratch will only take a few extra minutes and I think it’s easier to wrap using a homemade crust.)

Instructions

If using purchased crusts, unroll the crusts on a lightly floured surface, and lightly roll the crust with a rolling pin, 1-2 times in each direction to make them just a bit larger. Cut them in half.

Peel and the core the apples and then cut them in half horizontally.

Stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.

Rub the cinnamon-sugar mixture on the apples. Mix remaining sugar mixture with the softened butter.

Place an apple in the center of a piece of pie dough. Spoon 1/4 of the butter-sugar mixture into the apple core.

Pull the dough up around the apples gently and lightly pinch the top together into a beggar's purse. The store-bought crusts will be longer than wide - I cut off a couple inches of dough from the "long side" and just pinched it together on the "short side" to make it a more equal shape.

Tie a piece of kitchen twine around the dough (or just crimp it really well) and transfer the dumpling to the prepared pan.

That is a baked cake-style donut, flavored with dulce de leche, studded with pretty flecks of vanilla bean, and covered in more dulce de leche. It’s borderline dessert wearing breakfast camouflage.

But at least it’s not fried, right?

I took the spiced cake donut recipe that came with my donut pan, the same one I modified to make the Pumpkin Spice Donuts, and stripped it down to use as a base for these donuts. The vanilla and caramel flavors are pretty much out of this world. You know, if you’re in to the whole dessert-for-breakfast or breakfast-for-dessert thing.

Transfer batter (it will be thicker than your standard cake batter) to a ziptop bag.

Snip off the corner of the bag (make the opening ~ 3/4 inch) and pipe the batter into the donut wells until 1/2 - 3/4 cup full (you'll get exactly 6 donuts; the batter is very thick and holds it's shape, it won't really settle or bake smoothly if you spoon it into the pan).

Bake 8-12 minutes, until the top of the donut springs back when lightly tapped.

Let cool in pan 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the glaze, warm the dulce de leche slightly in the microwave (~15 seconds). Stir until smooth.

Drizzle the donuts with dulce de leche and add sprinkles.

It's easier to store unglazed donuts in a ziptop bag and then glaze them before eating. Or you can store glazed donuts in a covered cake plate. They'll keep fresh ~3 days.